James Siver, Why I Will Continue Using WordPerfect Over Word
TechnoLawyer member Jon Calhoun asks:
"I think for most of us that swear by WordPerfect it is the Reveal Codes feature that always puts it head and shoulders above Word. I've not worked with Microsoft Word's Reveal Formatting that Kim described as "similar to" Reveal Codes." I'd appreciate further comments from those who use Word 2002, who also are familiar with WP, as to the ease of use and other characteristics of the Reveal Formatting."
Alan D. Garber responded:
"The issue really is how do you fix problems in a document, because in a perfect document, nobody would need to reveal codes or formatting...."
Barron K. Henley wrote:
"As someone who has taught Word AND WordPerfect to law firms for over 10 years, I can verify everything that Mr. Garber states in his post. The mastery of styles in Word eliminates and avoids about 90% of the formatting issues one may otherwise encounter...."
Nathaniel Barber responded:
"I couldn't agree more with Barron Henley. There's nothing I can do in WordPerfect that I can't do faster, more elegantly, and with less code in Word. WordPerfect, in my view, is an "enabler" (in the pejorative, behavioral science sense) of clutter and inefficiency. It enables people to fail to think strategically about their document's format; it enables people to format their documents ad hoc — line by line. How? By putting line-by-line formatting front and center, which creates the illusion that one is getting a finer degree of control than offered by Word. But Word can do everything WordPerfect can, format-wise. Instead, what you're getting is a lot of "code clutter"...."
As a long time WordPerfect user, who has considered moving to Word, you have successfully convinced me that WordPerfect is a far more versatile program than Word. Apparently, what Mr. Barber and others are saying is that Word styles the entire document, and you cannot change the style without changing the style of the entire document. How archaic is that? Yes, WP puts a lot of codes in ... but, you can put them where you want them. But WP certainly allows you the oppurtunity to change the styles on a line by line basis within the document, as you see fit. That is certainly important when creating many of the legal documents that we use in the day to day operations of the practice of law. When one has to take 4 or 5 paragraphs to try to make arguments for Word, against WP, I am reminded of the saying that "one doth protest to much."
Thank you, you have convinced me NOT to change from WP 12 to Word 2003.
James Anthony Siver
Attorney at Law
[Publisher's Note: Word's Styles work on a paragraph by paragraph basis. You can create as many Styles as you need. Once you set them up, formatting documents is a breeze. Within paragraphs, you can certainly apply bold, italics, etc. to words and phrases. Also, with Sections, you can create as many different page layouts as you wish within the same document. Word has its share of weaknesses, but formatting is one of its strong points. — Neil J. Squillante]
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